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U.S. existing home sales fall for the fifth month in a row in June, gold price trades just above $1,700

Kitco Media
By Anna Golubova
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(Kitco News) Gold edged down and was trading just above the $1,700 an ounce level as the U.S. existing home sales fell for the fifth month in a row, dropping 5.4% in June.

Existing home sales declined to a seasonally adjusted and annualized rate of 5.12 million units last month, compared to May’s annualized rate of 5.41 million homes, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) said on Wednesday. Market consensus projections called for existing home sales to decline to 5.38 million.

On an annual basis, May’s existing sales were down 14.2%.

High housing costs were partly to blame for the monthly decline, said NAR's chief economist Lawrence Yun.

"Falling housing affordability continues to take a toll on potential home buyers," said Yun. "Both mortgage rates and home prices have risen too sharply in a short span of time."

The median price for all home types was $416,000 in June, rising 13.4% from a year ago. This marked the 124th straight month of year-over-year gains – the longest-running streak on record.

The total inventory was at 1.26 million units, up 2.4% from last year's total.

Gold prices ticked down but were largely unchanged following the data release. August Comex gold futures were last trading at $1,706.80, down 0.23% on the day. 

Live 24 hours gold chart [Kitco Inc.]

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Anna Golubova

Anna Golubova is the Producer for Kitco News. With more than ten years of experience in media, she has covered a range of topics, focusing on economy and politics. Anna began to exclusively cover economic news in 2013, attending media lockups at the Bank of Canada and Statistics Canada to report on a range of key macro economic events, including interest rate announcements, GDP, unemployment, and retail. She holds a Master of Arts in International Relations from NPSIA, Carleton and a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and History from the University of Ottawa.

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